First Ever Run - Work In Progress

[nmanpkr]

Hello fellow 420magazine members, this is my first post, I have got a lot of my pointers from this site so i've decided to join.

A little about myself, I am a computer engineer, and a Pagan. I have a deep interest in nature, and I use Cannabis everyday to help with my stomach cramps caused from IBS.

IMAGES:

FIRSTLY:
I didn't take this grow serious at first, It started by putting a Bag Seed into a little flower pot I had that had clovers in it. When it sprouted I said "ah, what the heck" and decided to grow it out! I messed up right off the bat because it was too big for its little pot, and the other pot I had was huge. And it made it a struggle at first. Next grow I will be transplanting the proper way. The equipment isn't very sufisticated, the light was made from some Romex 12/3 and a pair of 660w light sockets string in parallel. The sockets have 1 'Y' in them, and each 'Y' has 2 bulbs in it (CFL).

Item List:

Seed: Unknown Bag Seed

Germination process used: Direct in soil, Sprouted in 2 days.

Soil: Miracle Grow Organic Blend (Cold mix, no nutes)
Water: Nothing special, Filtered well water

Lighting: 4x 40w (Actual Usage, 150w Equiv) CFL's
2,600 Lumens per bulb

------------ Log ------------

Aprox 1 week old:

Sept 16th, 2016

Plant Height: Aprox. 2 1/2" - 3"
Gap between Cotyledons and Fanned leaves: 1/4"
Second Pointed set of leaves noticeable aprox. 2-3mm

Base of plant slightly pinkish color, fading to a light green/white. Also noticeable between cotyledons and first set of leaves is little white fuzzy hairs like seen on most plants.

Sep 17th, 2016

This morning it looks like plant is focusing on leaf growth, First set bigger, second set starting to grow more aprox. 4-5mm

-- Night-Time 17th Sept --
Noticed 2nd leaf set exploded in size, 3rd leaf set coming in too.

Sep 18th, 2016

First fan leaves over 1"
Second set is now 3/4"

Between each of the 4 longer leaves is a new leaf. I can notice a tip to the plant too. (Super Tiny)

Sep 19th, 2016

The smaller set in the corners grew fairly much, about 1/4" in length now.
2nd set is 1" in length.
1st set is 1 1/4" in length.

3-1-2 Nutes, very very diluted 1/8th recommended. (Don't Do it! Don't, wait longer then I did!)

Sep 20th, 2016

More growth among all leaf sets. Gap between first set and second set, I believe the plant will node out this way.
At this point I added a PC case fan running at 5v instead of 12v, it puts a really faint breeze on the plant. I feel this will help strengthen up the stem by creating mico-fractures in the cell walls of the plant, causing it to beefin up some. Kind of like how boxers train by hitting hard things to make the bones stronger. (I don't know anything about boxing, could be a myth)

Sep 21st, 2016

More growth, Noticed stem is a bit stiffer, stronger.

Sep 22nd, 2016

*Problem* Noticed the tips of two leaves on the bottom seem like they were burnt from the one little dose of nutes I gave it a few days back. I put the pot in the sink and carefully ran water through the soil until it came out clear. I have had some watering issues, since I used to big of a pot I was unable to properly water the plant. I've been forced to spot water it with a graduated pipette. Now that the plant is a little tougher I'm going to be watering it by running water on the soil until about 10% excess run-off is exhausted from the bottom of the pot into my collection tray. This should help with keeping the nutes out of a toxic range. Also I will be picking up a pH testing kit So i can log pH data. I also have my Arduino set-up with a homemade hygrometer sensor, and a temperature sensors, and photo resistor. I will be logging this data as well.

as it stands now: Light schedule is 18/6h, fan goes off with light. (My theory behind this is to low stress the plant throughout the day, while giving her night time to repair and thus thicken up her stem.)

 

[Tomula]

Hello and welcome to the forums. I see your girl is up and growing nicely. What is IBS? I don't know that. I'm kinda Pagan myself I see the need of living in harmony equally among all in the Nature beginning with oneself. I believe in supreme deity of which I'm part of. I like you gave gardening a shot so I've I do have some suggestions for you. Before I got into growing I did a lot of reading on the forums, about lights- the distance, reflectivity of materials, light temperature, distance. I read about the plant itself and the techniques used in growing. I read about the common mistakes and things I will definitely need for the plant's environment. I suggest you do likewise.

You are using aluminium foil that is not very reflective, the shiny side being less reflective than the dull one. Note all the light that is not shining on the plant which can be directed back to your plant- white paint preferably gloss is cheap and good for that. You can make simple reflector from some white cardboard box mainly found in trash or shops for free. Use glue or duck tape to make your desired shape. You can also bury the plant up to the very first leaves and she will grow new roots from the stem. I suggest oscillating fan so you prevent wind burn on the leaves and it's stronger so that's a plus. Buy yourself some yellow and blue sticky traps as it can save you a ton of hustle later. As for the tap water let it sit out for a full 24 hours before watering- let the chlorine dissipate. Also check PH of your water with nutes before and runoff after watering. It should be somewhere around 6.5-7.0. The traps can catch the bug which can start colony in you pot. I think that's all I wanted to tell you, so good luck and happy growing! Feel free to ask anything!

 

[nmanpkr]

Thank you for the advice Tomula. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a disorder in which abdominal pain is associated with a range of symptoms. Typically, these include intermittent abdominal pain accompanied by diarrhea, constipation, or alternating episodes of both.

I took your advice on the aluminum foil and painted the box white. I still am working on a way to oscillate the fan. Here is a new picture.

 

[Chazzmo]

Nice job man your baby is looking very healthy

 

[Tomula]

Great job on that paint and oh, she looks great!

 

[mouser]

Welcome! Im sure you will find all the help and encouragement you could want here. Your plant looks green and happy, and I love the rune stones

 

[arpowre3]

Great detailed log man! I enjoyed! Subd

Sent from my SM-N910V using 420

 

[nmanpkr]

So today I noticed what some people around here call "Tacoing", I'm not sure what's starting to cause this. I noticed this today. I moved my fan way back off the plant, it barely blows on the plant I'm just trying to control where the heat from the lights is. Could this be heat stress? My CFL's where like 3-4" away. Could it be a Mag deficiency? Over/under watering? I just watered today, and mixed a little bit of nutes in half a gallon of water. I do notice a very very faint yellow in on of the veins of one of the affected leaves. Hopefully everything is ok, Besides that I added some pumpkins to keep her company.

[Edit] I've read here too that it could be the stomata moving closer to the light to try to transpire faster, and could mean it's healthy. Am I just being too paranoid?

 

[nmanpkr]

Here are some more pics too showing the height and leaf sizes. Also a pic to show how far away my fan is. Leaf length is about 3" on some now, and overall plant height is about 4"

I have off tomorrow so I will try to go to a store and get a pH kit, Walmart doesn't have any now so I thought maybe a pet store because I think maybe people check the pH of there fish tanks? If not, I will have to order online :/ my house has no mailing address, So I will have to ship to a friends. Also I have made some "Soil moisture" sensors out of aluminum foil insulated in electric tape. My arduino will measure the Resistance between the two probes and calculate a moisture percentage, then I can include that in my logs. I just have to calibrate my sensor in bone-dry soil and moist soil tomorrow. Will post pics of process.

 

[Greenracer192]

Looks fine.
My advice is to not believe everything you read. My first grow i couldnt leave them alone. Id read one thing and try it. Then read a different thing n try that. All the torture i ended up putting on the little white widow auto. Just when it started to flower it was near dead. I left it and let it grow on its own 16hrs light and watered it with water from my fish tank. I was told cause it was auto to destroy it and start agIn. Well it ended up with 2 ounces of fuel weed.
What im trying to say is us growers sometimes make trouble for ourselves. If you do the basics properly you should have no problems.
These days i only attend to plants approximately once a week. Things just run smooth when you keep it simple.

Sent from my SM-J110F using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[nmanpkr]

Thanks for the advice, It's so hard to not over-think it for me because it's just so exciting! lol, But I guess that's a good thing in a way. I'm sure once I get the supplies to measure the pH, I'll be able to ease my mind by seeing good numbers.

 

[turboKITTY]

Hey. Looking good so far, nice on painting the walls white - I was using tinfoil before I did that as well. Not sure what those plants are but they do not look like cannabis and I personally would remove them immediately so they aren't stealing anything from your pot plant.

 

[nmanpkr]

They are clovers, I had them in the soil first for looks. But I think now the two may be a species of commensalism. Clovers are a legume and add nitrogen to the soil thru a process called "Nitrogen Fixation. Here is a source: How Much Nitrogen Will Clover Put in the Soil? | Home Guides | SF Gate

I can't confirm if this is beneficial to Cannabis or not, but it would be interesting if it does.

 

[turboKITTY]

Very interesting, I did not know that they did that thank you for sharing I would be worried about their roots stealing from the cannabis plants roots and not allowing it to absorb and grow to its fullest potential.
I'm interested in getting the maximum yield from my plants and I feel like that is something that could be affected and given that nitrogen will be readily available to the plants through the nutrients you will provide, I would remove them. Depending on how much nitrogen is put into the soil from the clovers, it could stem some toxicity issues down the road when combined with the nitrogen from your line of nutrients.

 

[Greenracer192]

Very true turbokitty. Keep it basic. Use basic nutes. You need to learn to grow basic. Thats how you learn. Then after a few grows try things and see what works for you and what dont. When starting plz everyone keep it simple and learn when the plants thirsty. When it wants more nitrogen or less nitrogen. I advise a basic nute for the first few grows. They make out to get great buds you need the whole kit of nutes. Well ive grown huge dank weed basic. Yes once you have masterd the basics the whole kit may be great but not till you are confident on knowing when to use what basics.

Sent from my SM-J110F using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[Tomula]

Hello Nman, she looks great I wouldn't worry about the curl now. For the water- if you check on her more often she will tell you if she is thirsty and after watering she will be looking like new. There is the lift the pot method where you guess the water level in container by lifting it up. Or you can feel the soil with your fingers even bit deeper. I love the ingenuity with another plants growing together with you cannabis, I mean they won't make it big if they cannot keep up with her height. Some grass or clover cannot compete with cannabis roots. Remember that the plant gives half of its absorbed energy and food back to the soil for the microbes and other creatures to help her make nutes more available. That's equivalent of firm making advertisements. Imho the best way of growing is making yourself some good soil mix and then just add water and microbial tea. There are many threads about that.
I'm interested in your rune stones and what have you done with them it looks like some kind of lucky charm. You are growing first time every time there is always something new and amazing! Happy growing!

 

[mouser]

I agree with the masses...let them go and keep an eye on them. They look good. Clover is a wonderful pot mate for your girl. Also good are lambs quarters, and green onions...at least thats what Ive observed browsing the journals. There are several members that use LOS (living organic soil) and there is always a co-crop going on.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Welcome, great detailed 1st post. I noticed scrolling up and back down that your pics make a cool time lapse movie.

Everything looks good. Dense growth and 5 leaf pairs in 10 days! I want a bag seed like that!

As for clover, most of nitrogen is taken up by clover plant and not added to soil until clover is plowed back under. It will compete with MJ and may harbor mildew and other pests in long run. I grow lots of it in my yard for many reasons besides nitrogen fixing, but for an indoor pot I'd pull it. The runes can stay, they're definitely helping.

 

[Greenracer192]

I love how you explain things kingston and your knowledge seems to be great. Have you got a link to a grow i can check out.

 

[nmanpkr]

Here are some pictures from today, She is growing so fast! I still am seeing the "tacoing", but only on new growth, then they flatten out. I'm thinking, maybe too low of a humidity? I just ordered a thermometer and hygrometer combo and a digital pH meter off ebay so I wont be able to pull actual numbers until maybe Monday. I put some water in a bowl and sat it in the closet to dry to make it a bit more humid. I also took out the clovers finally.

[Edit] Plant also has a minty smell and slight Cannabis smell already. You can smell it as soon as you open the closet.